Weight loss is a huge commercial industry, it’s hard to find any information that is helpful. You can google and find 1000’s of suggestions, including products, services, diets and clubs. Speak to friends, family, colleagues etc and they will have all had their own experiences in the weight loss world.
At this point, I want to say that you deserve recognition for having found this article, it may just be your last fruitless weight loss search (I hope!).
Once you have read this article you will know 3 things:
a) how to spot the diet nonsense
b) the best place to start
c) why cutting out foods just doesn’t work
How to spot the weight loss nonsense.
If you are trying to lose weight, the chances are you have excess stored body fat. This excess stored body fat has to be used as energy in order for it to ‘leave the building’.
Has any product, service or diet club you have ever been a part of taught you how to use fat as an energy source?
I am a firm believer in education. You will find it very difficult to stick to weight loss lifestyle changes or make food decisions that will result in weight loss, without knowing how the body actually uses stored fat for energy.
You need to know that your body will only use stored fat for energy in the absence of another source of energy. That other source of energy is glucose (sugar).
Without addressing your bodies ability to regulate glucose intake and devising a plan that ensures your body has to tap into fat stores as an energy source you will have very limited success with weight loss.
No single supplement, product, gym membership, bootcamp, diet club, skinny tea, weight loss capsules will provide you with the long term weight loss results you desire.
Your first take home from today: “Does this weight loss choice I am making make me use fat as an energy source?” If the answer is no. Don’t waste your money on it. If you don’t know, book in a free discovery chat with me and I will tell you.
The best place to start your Weight Loss journey
Everyone’s weight loss journey is unique, it would be facetious of me to suggest that everyone could start in the same place. However, following on from the above, long term weight loss success is on the other side of change and long term change is only possible if you understand why you are doing it.
Therefore, the best place to start is to look at WHY you are doing what you are doing. Whatever weight loss choices you make, you need to know WHY you are making them. If you are going to start a time restricted eating regime….why are you doing it?
If you are going to cut out bread…why are you doing it?
If you are going to reduce alcohol…why are you doing it?
It can’t just be because my friend is, or I saw it on social media!
When you truly know why you are eating within certain windows it will be so much easier to make decisions around your own lifestyle and adapt it to your weight loss goals.
When you know why you are cutting out bread it will be so much easier to seek out alternatives and resist temptation.
I see so much suffering happen because people are clutching at straws that are ‘supposed to give weight loss results’ but when I ask why they are doing these things…most people don’t know why.
Your second take home from today: Why am I making this choice for my weight loss goals? What does it do and why is it going to help me? If you don’t know the answer, I probably will! Get in touch.
Why cutting out foods just doesn’t work
It has been proven, time and time again, that just cutting out foods for weight loss does not work. The human body wants to feel good. The reason it is seeking out the food that you are cutting out is because it likes it. Whether that is a piece of toast or a bottle of wine. At this point in time, it makes your body feel good. You will not be able to fight 1000’s of years of evolutionary survival that is inbuilt in the mechanism of your brain. It will win every time!
I should probably add here that there are a small percentage of people that are successful with just cutting things out, but the odds are not stacked in your favour.
Instead of cutting out your favourite chocolate, switch it to something that is less likely to sabotage your weight loss success. If you have a habit of eating on the sofa in the evening, it is because it brings you comfort. You need to replace the behaviour with something else that brings you comfort.
Your body does not want to feel bad and unsurprisingly, restriction and stress makes you feel bad. I am yet to see a person who feels ‘bad’, be successful at weight loss. You need to feel good to be successful. If you add a busy stressful day or emotions into the equation there is not a chance that you are going to resist that food that brings you comfort without another form of comfort in its place. There are great books on this: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear.
*your final take home from today….replace foods, don’t just cut them out!
In Summary
When seeking weight loss options, ask yourself:
Does this make me use fat for energy?
Why am I making this choice?
What am I having instead of my XYZ?
All of these weight loss tips are possible to action on your own but if you need a little support or would like to chat anything through, please do get in touch.
Comments